Names: Maria Kikillos & Henry Ratcliffe
When and where: Friday, April 15th, 2016 at The Spider’s Web Café, Cosford.
Beverage: tea (me), coffee (Maria), coffee/tea (Henry)
Last time we met in person: April 2015 in Bilston
Friends on Facebook: Maria since September 2007, Henry since April 2015
Friends in real life: Maria since around 1982, Henry since April 2015

Maria and I first met when we both attended Wolverhampton Girls’s High School. She was in the year below me, so we weren’t close friends in school but we knew each other. After school, Maria began working in a record shop in Wolverhampton, so I would then see her very frequently, and would occasionally see her at gigs. I distinctly remember running into her at Tamworth Rockfest on the day I first met Dave & Jules, and giving her and her friend a ride back to Wolverhampton after the show. After I moved away we lost touch, but when I joined Facebook in 2007, she was one of the first people I connected with, and since then we’ve been really good pals. She even took a detour from a trip to New York City in 2010 to spend a few days with us in Newport. She sends me all sorts of Coronation Street goodies and minty chocs, and I’ll send her fun kitschy finds, cherry chocs, and sometimes a cool vintage frock I can’t fit into any more!

We usually make time to get together when I come over to visit, and it was starting to look like we weren’t going to have a chance this time around, but towards the end of my trip we went out for breakfast together at the Spider’s Web Café in Cosford. I’d been staying with friends who live nearby and they’d taken me there a couple of times before, so it was very conveniently located for me, and it was just a couple of stops along the local train line for Maria. Like me, she appreciates the traditional English caff, and also loves kitsch, so I knew she’d love this place. The Spider’s Web serves proper old-fashioned food in totally unpretentious style, and the surroundings are a feast for the eyes. There are knick knacks everywhere you look (including loads of spiders and webs — not real ones though, the place is spotlessly clean.) Unlike those chain pubs who display random tchotchkes no doubt bought in a job lot by some corporate interior designer, you can tell these were lovingly assembled over time, and are a reflection of the personalities running the place. It is absolutely charming, and a rare find these days. I would eat there every week if I could.

I walked to the station to meet her and was very pleasantly surprised to see that Henry would also be joining us. I’d only met him once before, on my visit last year, and I loved him right away. We got to the Spider’s (as it’s known to the regulars) and Pat behind the counter greeted me by name, despite the fact that I’d only ever been in twice before (and one of those times was a year ago.) You don’t get that at Costa! We ordered our breakfasts and retired to the back dining room with our drinks, and then basically didn’t stop talking for two hours. We covered many topics: work, friends, what I’d done on my trip so far, and inevitably our wonderful surroundings. After two more rounds of drinks and a photo session (thank you Henry for the photos!) we went our separate ways.